In Pursuit of Passion .. not Carrots or Sticks
Watching a bit of the US Open last night, I was struck with the question of the source of motivation by athletes to work without cease, endure pain, sustain focus, and intensify commitment to a sport over time even when the odds of losing are far greater than standing on the podium to receive a trophy. And, in tennis, close doesn’t buy much in terms of rewards. I also am reading Why Children Succeed by Paul Tough and am reflecting deeply on the empirical research he reports that building curiosity, resilience, and relational skills offers children a far greater chance at success in life than our current almost singular preoccupation with academic success. His work pushes against the fixed mindset that nurturing intellectual capability and cognitive skills should be the most important focus for learning in homes and schools.
Anyone who pursues learning with passion and intensity – whether it’s improvement of tennis serve placement or how to write poetry – sustains commitment to practice, to try out new improvement strategies, and to add new tools to their learning tool belt. We all know people who seem to have a level of resilience when it comes to a pursuit of passion. They often work in the state of flow as described by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, but they also persevere when their work becomes more difficult and success an elusive target, as author Laura Catherine Brown noted at the release of her debut novel.“I write in my journal every day even when I don’t feel like writing. It’s like practicing scales.”
Over the last two years in the summer, I’ve watched young people pursue learning passions through a variety of pathways atypical of what their learning may be like in the regular school year. Male learners with risk factors had fun together as they worked long hours becoming algebra experts, creating marble roller coasters to experiment with relationships among slope, kinetic energy, and laws of motion. I’ve had the chance to observe teen writers spend a 14-hour day simply writing for the joy of writing. In another space, the energy of beginning and advanced jazz band enthusiasts propelled them through a week of hard practice from a cacophony of disconnected notes into
